It’s the subgenre beloved by insiders but often shunned by audiences. Can new films from Sam Mandes, Damien Chazelle and Steven Spielberg satisfy cinemagoers and awards voters?
“Write what you know” is one of the hoariest adages around, and for film-makers it means making movies about a subject of endless fascination and first-hand knowledge for them: the movies. Audiences have never been quite as interested in the internal machinations of film-making as film-makers themselves, but some of these projects have occasionally broken through to awards triumphs and even box-office success: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, La La Land, The Artist and, further back, The Player and The Last Picture Show were all proud members of the the movies-about-movies subgenre.
Now, the subject has sparked the interest of a trio of A-list film-makers, who each have a major film emerging from the autumn festival circuit with serious Oscar aspirations. The Fabelmans, directed by Steven Spielberg, and Empire of Light, by Sam Mendes, are both strong contenders for the Toronto film festival’s People’s Choice award, announced on Saturday and which has long been a key indicator of Oscar success, while Babylon, from La La Land director Damien Chazelle, is due for a high-profile release around the new year.
